East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

12/07/2016 05:13

Language Volcano
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East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect

Ulster Irish today is pretty much a synonym for Donegal Irish. But did you
know that Irish was also widely spoken in Eastern Ulster, despite the high
number of English and Scottish settlers since the Plantation of Ulster? Indeed,
East Ulster Irish was seen as an Intermediary dialect between Irish and
Scottish Gaelic forming part of perhaps part of a dialect continuum. This is
backed up by the fact that there is still confusion to this day over whether
Rathlin Island Irish is an East Ulster dialect or dialect of Scots Gaelic!
First of all, Ulster Irish is one of the three main dialects of the Irish Language
(The others being Munster and Connaught Irish) and is spoken in the
northern province of Ireland called Ulster (a province which straddles two
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East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

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countries, that of the Republic of Ireland and that of Northern Ireland which
belongs to the UK). Traditionally Irish was spoken across the province but the
last native speakers were dying out in East Ulster by the mid twentieth
century. Nowadays, Ulster Irish is mainly spoken in the Donegal Gaeltacht
and Shaws Road in Belfast [although in East Ulster, Donegal Irish is used].
Eastern Ulster Irish or Gaedhilge as it was known in the dialect, is very
interesting linguistically and were it to still exist, it could perhaps be a
mechanism through which strong ties could be maintained between Irish,
Scots Gaelic [Gidhlig] and Manx as the same language would be spoken on
both sides of the Strait of Moyle and it would be the centre of the Gaelic
speaking world.
Since the dialect survived into the 20th Century, there is plenty of recorded
evidence of the language that we still have today such as video or audio
recordings, placenames and books (in the past, spelling was much more
phonetic). The recordings which captured my imagination years ago when I
heard about their existence on the radio are the famous Doegen Recordings [I
will attach a link at the end of the article]. These recordings were of native
speakers of various di!erent regional dialects in Ireland (many of which are
now extinct) made between 1928 and 1931 by the German linguist Dr Doegen
and to whom we should all be eternally grateful. At a time when Irish was
more widely spoken, we had pockets of speakers recorded (these pockets have
since disappeared) in the Sperrin Mountains, the Glens of Antrim, Rathlin
Island, North-West County Cavan, South-East County Monaghan, South
Armagh and North County Louth in a place called Omeath. Irish survived in
the Sperrins until the 1950s, until the 1970s in the Glens of Antrim and 1985
in Rathlin Island, Bella McKenna of Rathlin Island was the last speaker of
East Ulster Irish and fortunately she was recorded on video speaking before
she died.
These recordings reveal the pecularities of this dialect and what makes it

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di!erent from the rest of Irish. You may have seen earlier in this post the East
Ulster way of saying Gaelic Gaedhlig. Very similar to the Scots Gaelic
Gidhlig in contrast to Gaeilge in the south of Ireland. We also have examples
such as bhfeil in East Ulster (the same in Scots Gaelic) compared to the Irish
bhfuil. They also pronounced vowels di!erently like ea for example. In
most Irish dialects fear was pronoucned far but in East Ulster Irish, it was
pronounced ferr. This sound rule is also applied in Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
Also the common name Sen is pronounced Shawn in most of Ireland, but in
East Ulster it was pronounced Shane.
East Ulster Irish also has some of its own unique vocabulary for vocab that it
is the same in every other Irish dialect. For example coinfheasgar (trthnna
evening in Irish. The Manx for good evening is fastyr vie), arsigh (innis
tell), corruighe (fearg angry), prinn (deifir hurry), go seadh (go fill
yet), mrt (b cow), toigh (teach house).
Rathlin Island Gaelic is fascinating and deserves its own post (actually
someone has made their own blog dedicated to it and I will attach a link to it
at the bottom). Rathlin Gaelic had its own features such as bh (considered a
Scottish Gaelic feature) instead of the Irish bh and the -adh endings would
have been pronounced -ag. Ainm name was pronounced like arm. As I have
previously stated, scholars have long debated over whether it is Irish or Scots
Gaelic. It contains features of both languages and could have been a
transitional dialect between both. What perhaps facilitated this was that the
inhabitants of Rathlin Island were themselves descended from Scottish
settlers. Some of these were Highlanders who fled persecution following
the Battle of Culloden in 1745. This influx of new settlers brought variations
in the language, which were enduring. The dialects closest to Rathlin Gaelic
that are still alive today are Islay Gaelic in Scotland and the Irish in Fanad in
North Donegal.
Languages are too often seen as mechanical and impersonal. Here, in East

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Ulster Irish we have not just a dialect but a story of a people. We see how
despite these people lived on the island of Ireland, they were under the
massive influence of Scotland and they themselves were evidence for how
close gaelic cultures were to each other. I would very much be in favour of the
revival of these dialects. Like any language it cannot die, it can only be
dormant. A dialect that could act as intermediary between language would
truly be a treasure. Foreign learners of gaelic could choose to learn this dialect
in order to maximise the amount of people thet could speak to and it would
also fascilatate the rapid acquisition of another of the gaelic languages. With
our help, Ulster could again become centre of the Gaelic World.
Thanks for listening, have a nice day!

http://rathlingaelic.blogspot.ie/2011/12/irish-language-in-rathlinisland.html
https://www.doegen.ie/

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Author: languagevolcano
I am a guy who has an irrational love of languages, whether they are ancient or not. I
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East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

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am the proud of owner of a Roman Epigraphy facebook page

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languagevolcano / July 12, 2016 / Languages / Celtic Languages, Dialect, Extinct, Irish,
Scottish Gaelic, Ulster

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